Thursday, November 26, 2015

Short sellers have been making false, unsubstantiated claims about Valeant for months in an attempt to drive down our stock price, and today’s allegations also contain significant inaccuracies. Valeant has already disclosed that 7.2% of our sales this year through the third quarter went through specialty pharmaceutical channels, and that has not changed. As we have said, in October we decided it was appropriate to sever our relationship with Philidor after allegations about their business practices came to light. The entities mentioned today appear to have been formed on or prior to 8/18/2015, based on public records. Furthermore, our board of directors has appointed an ad hoc committee to review allegations related to Valeant’s business relationship with Philidor and related matters

There is no denial the entities were set up either by Valeant or Valeant associates.

They can't and don't deny that because it is the truth.

But they deny that they are still setting up or running these pharmacies. I could have fun with that assertion - lists of transactions if they want.

However one will do. A chess named pharmacy from that list (ELO Pharmacy) registered in Illinois on 28 October - after the Philidor expose.

Here is a screen shot.

It is in chess 50 moves without pawn-move or capture until we declare a draw.

(b). It has raised their prices sometimes to absurd levels ($1000 acne antibiotics with full generic substitutes is an example)

(c). It claims to raise volumes of these products.

I call this the improbable trio. It seems improbable that a company could do this. Not impossible, just improbable.

The trick it appears is reliance on non-traditional distribution models.

The size of non-traditional channels

Valeant's non-traditional channels are very large. During the dispute between Allergan and Valeant Allergan noted that the IMS sales data for Valeant products was crappy.

Valeant responded that IMS data was unreliable for Valeant. To quote:

U.S. IMS data will cover less than 30% of Valeant’s business and, for that portion of Valeant’s business IMS covers, the IMS data will not properly collect sales through a numbers of channels (e.g., specialty pharmacy, physician dispensed sales, corporate accounts, and alternative fulfillment).

The non-traditional distribution methods are hugely important in Valeant.

The Philidor allegation

The Philidor allegation is that Valeant [through undisclosed proxies] established or owned pharmacies (such as R&O in California) and used their pharmacy numbers to deceive insurance companies into believing that scripts for expensive drugs with generic substitutes were being presented at smaller suburban pharmacies rather than at a Valeant captive pharmacy.

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The content contained in this blog represents the opinions of Mr. Hempton. Mr. Hempton may hold either long or short positions in securities of various companies discussed in the blog based upon Mr. Hempton's recommendations. The commentary in this blog in no way constitutes a solicitation of business or investment advice. In fact, it should not be relied upon in making investment decisions, ever. It is intended solely for the entertainment of the reader, and the author. In particular this blog is not directed for investment purposes at US Persons.